Aon Best Employers renegotiate the employee deal

Growing levels of political instability, technological advancement and changing global power structures have triggered measurable increases in employee angst in 2017. As a result, employees are increasingly looking to their employers for the opportunities and development they need to thrive in an uncertain future. CEO’s and HR leaders therefore need to change how they approach attracting and retaining their people.

Shifting the mindset around employee experiences

Rewards and recognition, EVP and career opportunities: While these have traditionally been seen as best practice, employee satisfaction with these elements is decreasing across the board. So is it time to change how we view the employee experience?

We’ve observed an emerging trend that Aon Best Employers are no longer looking at the employee experience through a functional lens (eg reward, development and on-boarding) but in a more individual, digitally-enabled manner.

Aon Best Employers are keeping ahead of the game by offering a holistic work experience that emphasises non-monetary recognition, creative development opportunities and tailored company benefits

Compared with only 47% of employees at other organisations, 71% of employees at Aon Best Employers felt they received sufficient opportunities to gain new skills. Additionally, 64% believed there were plenty of opportunities for them to progress their careers beyond promotion (such as lateral moves, secondments and project work), versus only 41% at other organisations.

Tips from Aon Best Employers

Although the reality of renegotiating an entrenched system can feel overwhelming, here are some simple, but high impact techniques from 2017 Aon Best Employers:

Not everyone is excited by the same benefits. Many organisations still apply a one-size-fits-all approach to employee benefits. Although it’s an efficient strategy, they miss the opportunity to leverage benefits to attract and retain talent. In comparison, Aon Best Employers offer a combination of universal benefits (ie to all employees) in conjunction with benefits tailored to individual employees. For example, they may offer free skin checks to everyone while making flexible hours available to those who need it.

Clarity goes a long way. Organisations don’t need to pay above market or hand out large bonuses to have highly satisfied employees. Instead, Aon Best Employers focus on setting the right expectations around pay and career progression. Whether they have an extensive career development program or a fixed-level hierarchy, Aon Best Employers are honest with their people about pay and career opportunities. This can be done across a number of channels, including consistent salary progression plans, manager conversations around career development and transparency about pay and bonuses.

Your talent know their needs better than you do. Aon Best Employers base their benefits on what their staff tell them they want, rather than on assumptions about their interests. And they don’t necessarily have a bigger benefits budget. Instead, they invest time in ensuring they spend money on benefits their employees value and this can even lead to savings – for example, scrapping the low-rated end-of-year cruise could potentially fund a years’ supply of high-impact fruit boxes.

About the Aon Best Employers program

Established in 2000, the Aon Best Employers program offers a unique opportunity for your organisation to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to your people. The program has been designed to benefit all participating organisations regardless of where your engagement levels currently sit by:

allowing you to benchmark against the Best

identifying the strengths and weaknesses in your people practices

providing action oriented consultation to help you improve engagement.

The Aon Best Employers program is both accessible and beneficial to all organisations. As the region’s most credible employer research program, Aon Best Employers provides the platform you need to prioritise your most important asset – your people.

Start a conversation with us

Contact us to find out how participation can help your company get ahead.

Haya Alomari

Haya leads the employee engagement practice for the Pacific region. Haya focuses on supporting organisations in achieving business strategy through their people. With experience across different industries and a wide-range of HR disciplines, Haya brings a holistic strategic approach to people management. Partnering with clients to explore different solutions to overcome organisational challenges is at the core of how she works with her clients.